Monday, January 17, 2011

If you want a good sense of the irrational, seething hatred the right has for President Obama, there's no need to look any further than the latest unhinged conspiratorial ravings of Gateway Pundit, Pajamas Media, Doug Ross and Michelle Malkin.

While President Obama's address to the nation in the wake of the murder of six people and the attempted assassination of Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords was widely praised in the media (even by Glenn Back), the rabid partisans of hate on the Right would simply have none of it. Unable to attack the president for what was an almost unanimously praised performance, right-wing bloggers spit their poisonous venom at the crowd that attended the service, frothing at what they felt were inappropriate whoops and oddly timed applause.

And it would have ended there had the geniuses at Gateway Pundit not stumbled upon a stunning photograph that proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt that, in fact the Obama Administration instigated the inappropriate applause through the nefarious technique of television broadcast. Reproduced below is the unassailable proof (click picture to enlarge).

Now, those who would counter that what the jumbotron is showing in that picture are not instructions to the crowd, but rather simple closed captioning for the deaf, clearly suffer from a surfeit of intellect and a paucity of stupidity. Or to put it in simpler terms, they must surely be liberals.

It was Gateway Pundit who first produced this stunning evidence of the White House's purposeful deceit. The post was picked up and commented favorably by Pajamas Media's Ed Driscoll, and blogger Doug Ross, and if we are to believe Ross, Michelle Malkin also linked to the story (though I can find no such link currently on her website).

I think my favorite chain of reasoning (once commenters started enlightening these right-wing geniuses on the meaning of the term "closed captioned") is Driscol's.

First the image was proof of Obama Adminsitration duplicity as it gave unassailable proof to the lie that the Administration did not explicitly elicit the crowd's reaction:

“If White House Was Surprised by Applause at Tucson Pep Rally.” Jim Hoft asks, “Why Did They Ask For It On Jumbotron?”

Click over for the damning photo.

Once commenters explained the meaning of "closed captioned" Driscol realized that OMG, that's even worse:

"Many on the left were quick to point out that the “applause” that appears on the screen are not prompts but closed-captioning. Really? ... I think it’s WORSE that it’s closed-captioning. ... Had some ass prompted the people to cheer, boo, applaud, act like morons and completely inappropriately, I would still have a scintilla of hope that maybe the left could be rehabilitated. Nope. Sadly the screen was merely reporting the goings-on. Scary, huh?."

So there you have it: damned if you do, damned if you don't. If it appears the Obama administration elicited the crowd's reaction, then they are contemptible liars. If, however, it turns that Driscol, Ross, Gateway Pundit, and Michelle Malkin are complete idiots who see Obama Administration villainy around every corner and under every rock, then it's even worse for liberals!